Bartimaeus

I was up early wondering if the kingfisher would be up early too. No such luck. A sunny day was forecast but it looked entirely clouded over. Shane had a plan to go cycling and leaving early would avoid the heat. When he got up I found the detail was that he wanted to travel through the lock and to the next lock where there was another mooring jetty and then set off to Bewdley by bike.

The locks are run by lock keepers and only run between 8.00 and 18.00, but safe to say we weren't ready to cast off until after eight. The lock keeper opened the gates. I was ready with a rope for the bow and remembered that I would need to wrap it round steel ropes set in grooves in the lock wall. The distance between the tie points and the fact that Shane was using the short strop meant there was not one near me, so I had to go along the gunwale with the rope to reach one and try to wrap it round using one hand and avoid getting slimed. The lock keeper did come and check I was okay, and I was by then back in the bow well, but the filling had in fact already started. He will know this lock fills gently. I didn't completely avoid sludge smear, but it was minimal.

The lock keeper chatted to Shane about the Bartimaeus books at the start, and didn't seem to know the Biblical connection with the beggar cured by Jesus. When it was full, he waved us off and called to us about the 'homing pigeon' that had adopted the lock as home and he had to look after it. I said I had noticed it hanging round the office the night before.He is trying to think of a name. I didn't attempt to explain that I had recently named a pigeon Piran and just shouted "Percy" by way of suggestion.

As the morning went on, it brightened. We saw another snake swimming and some swooping house martins. A heron flew majestically overhead.

A butterfly landed on the electric hook up point. Not the red admiral but a much smaller orange one which I  thought might be a skipper, but I was wrong so he wasn't in charge of the boat at all.

It was very peaceful with no other boats around. Shane recognised a a clear cheeping as a kingfisher but it was being more frequently then usual, urgently even. Then we saw two close together on a branch, and it looked like one was being fed.  I made out holes in the bank and am guessing it was a young one recently out of the nest.  They moved away further into the greenery, but didn't take off down the river.

Later we saw two more kingfishers flying fast along the river ahead of us. Then we saw one flying back the other way that looked to have a fish in its beak. They usually eat soon straight after their catch, where they are perched, so I assume this was food being brought back for young again. 

We were very pleased to have seen so many kingfishers, so early in the day. We wouldn't be on the river for most of the afternoon. We approached the sign for the lock just after eleven. Really Shane was working on seeing the weir and taking the other channel as the massive sign was actually not that easy to see in the trees

We pulled in and Shane went to speak to the lock keeper to check if it was okay to moor overnight. It was fine as long as we let people have access to the water point. We were at the back of the jetty and the water at the other end, but there was a small boat already there so we put fenders on the outside so other boats felt more comfortable coming alongside us if they were too long to fit in the space. We weren't going to be there to invite them ourselves.

I was impressed at how quickly Shane managed to get the tandem together when we had nothing to lean it on and the jetty was a bit bouncy. We followed cycle route 45 most of the time to Bewdley, where the plan was to hide in a museum and admire the historic town. But first, bread from the bakery and lunch in the shade, overlooking the river.

There was statue of a man in a suit, holding a pipe outside the museum. He was Stanley Baldwin. The name only brought to mind a Coronation Street character but he wasn't Stanley and he didn't smoke a pipe. This Stanley was a prime minister, but I hadn't heard of him.

Inside we saw a royal charter from James I (or James I and VI as I  always knew of him) Bewdley was of some prominence and became a royal manor and residence for the Duke of York in Tudor times. It was news to me that Prince Arthur, Duke of York and expected heir to the throne had been married for a few months to Catherine of Aragon before dying of "sweating fever" while still 15. Catherine survived the same illness and was then married to his brother Henry so she still married the king and one of the most famous or infamous of kings at that.  

Other exhibits showed local industries: rope making and woollen hats - an industry that was boosted by an act of Parliament making it a legal requirement for every man or boy, over six, to have one and wear it on Sundays or be fined! Nobility were exempt. I have made one identical to the one on display but it was called a Monmouth cap, not a Bewdley cap. The cap making industry thrived from the 16th century to the 19th century. I wonder when the threat of fining was lifted.

Stanley Baldwin had a section in the museum. He was prime minister three times between the wars. One of his claims to fame being that he was the one who persuaded King Edward VIII to abdicate, if he married Wallace Simpson, in 1936.

The museum also had gardens, which we explored once we had had a drink in the shade. One had a painting class going on, the other had a pond with fish, waterlilies and a lone duck. A notice informed us that the pond had been treated with a blue dye that inhibited algae from forming. The USA administration should have consulted Bewdley on how to keep a pool blue, reflective and algae-free, in order to celebrate 250 years without a king.